News & Events

Northwest Travel Dispatch: Winter 2016

Jan, 05. 2016

Category: Travel & Outdoor

Where you’ll want to go, and what’s happening there.

1. Whistler

This winter the ski area will run snowmaking machines on Horstman Glacier in hopes of keeping it from receding (and keeping it open longer for skiing). Hold up, did the Canadians just solve climate change?

2. Richmond

As the only official Olympic museum in North America, the new $10 million Richmond Olympic Experience features simulators that recreate sit skiing, whitewater kayaking, and bribing Russian judges for the gold.

3. Tacoma

The Washington State History Museum salutes Captain Cook’s futile search for the Northwest Passage in Arctic Ambitions, on exhibit through March 6, and points out that he should’ve just revved an SUV and waited for the polar ice caps to melt.

4. Leavenworth

The Bavarian Icefest’s Smooshing Contest on January 16—in which teams of adults strap themselves to pieces of lumber and race down a snowy street—could only have been invented in a town where Oktoberfest ale never stops flowing.

5. Portland

In the Ballin’ with the Bellman program, Friday night guests at downtown’s Hotel Vintage can play pickup basketball with the guest services manager, a former Portland State baller. If you dunk on him, you don’t have to leave a tip.

6. The Dalles

The new Route 30 Bottles and Brews pub is a giant toast to the historic highway that runs up the Columbia Gorge, decorated with roadway floors and tunnel-shaped passageways. Finally, socially acceptable drinking and driving.

7. Lava Hot Springs

The annual Fire and Ice Winter Fest, February 5–7, includes both a subzero endurance swim and a polar bear river float. Peoplesicles can thaw themselves in nearby hot spring–heated pools.